Is energy policy in Ontario a ship without a rudder?

It’s going to cost Ontarians $180 million to move a gas-fired power plant from Mississauga to Lambton County.

This is, according to the Energy Minister Chris Bentley, because the governing provincial Liberals were “listening to the community” when they made that 2011 decision.

I’m a huge advocate of renewable energy. That said, take a drive through the country, and you’ll see the “Stop the wind turbines” signs all over. Does the precedent of the Mississauga gas plant decision mean that any community that doesn’t want a generation facility of any type in their community will get its way?

So perhaps a few larger generation stations that are out of the way will work in this plan. However, Bruce Power failed to meet its commercial operation milestone. This gives the ratepayers of Ontario a chance to save upward of $500 million.

Are we going to reward failure, or take bold action?

Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals campaigned in 2011 on green energy jobs and the feed-in-tariff program they introduced. In stark contrast, the Progressive Conservatives said that if they got into power, they’d cancel the program.

The Conservatives said they’d cancel it in part because they didn’t have a handle on the economics of energy in this province, but also because it took too many powers away from the community.

So on one hand, the Liberals are stripping power from a community. On the other, they’re moving plants because a community doesn’t want it, at a heavy cost to all Ontarians. We want to control energy prices, but it looks like Bruce Power will get its payday despite not living up to its side of the bargain.

And the green energy jobs? They’ve been leaving the province in droves, since the feed-in-tariff program has been more or less stalled since last October. It looks like the Liberals gave the Conservatives their wish, and haven’t been accepting applications in the program, which in turn has been driving investment elsewhere.

Big bills to pay for moving gas plants. Green energy jobs leaving the province. And nuclear reactors that aren’t producing on time. This is what Bentley’s Ministry of Energy has accomplished. It’s like they’re a rudderless ship, reacting to problem after problem, instead of leading us forward.

We deserve better.

We deserve a government that listens to us, yes, but that has the courage to stand up for its convictions. We need to choose a path toward clean, renewable energy. And toward keeping jobs and innovation in our province. We have a choice. Let’s move forward.

David Estill ispresident and CEO of Estill Energy Inc., a Guelph- based company that installs solar systems for businesses and residences in southwestern Ontario.